Jon woke before he opened his eyes.
The first thing that reached him was a faint metallic rotting smell.
For one disorienting moment, his exhausted mind convinced him that he was still inside the stadium.
He imagined the roar of thousands of spectators, the warmth of the afternoon sun, the sound of the starting pistol, Coach Harris shouting his name, and his uncle waiting to congratulate…
Wait, his uncle.
His stomach tightened immediately, and the illusion shattered.
His uncle was dead, the world had ended with infected humans roaming, and he had killed a person.
Jon slowly opened his eyes.
Grey morning light seeped through the narrow gaps between the curtains, washing the living room in a dull, lifeless glow. Dust floated lazily through the beams of light, undisturbed by anything except the slow rotation of the ceiling fan overhead.
Everything looked exactly as they had left it.
The sofa and kitchen cupboard still blocked the front door, and the dining table and chairs still pressed firmly against the back entrance.
The kitchen knife rested within arm's reach, just an inch away from slipping away.
Across the room, Icarus sat quietly in the armchair; his eyes were closed, and the broken mop handle still rested across his lap. He seemed asleep, or he didn't; Jon couldn't tell.
Jon sat upright and stared at the curly-haired young man across him in wariness. The Icarus he saw yesterday and the Icarus today felt like two different people.
There was no obvious physical change. Yet something about Icarus felt different. Faint strands of pale golden light drifted around him before fading into the air.
Jon frowned.
'What is that...?'
Before he finished the thought, the strange light that surrounded his body vanished, and Icarus opened his eyes.
"Jon. You're awake."
Jon paused, then shifted, "…Yeah, Icarus… your eye."
Icarus nodded silently. He too seemed to be aware of the change. One of his eyes, specifically his right eye, now looked different. It now had a light-yellow glow, like a mutated sort.
"It sort of happened after I opened my record yesterday."
Jon's eyes narrowed, picking up a word, "Record?"
Icarus shifted his gaze from the small opening between the curtains, then to Jon.
"We can't leave her there."
Jon closed his eyes and sighed.
"...I know."
The rotten metallic smell had returned, more potent and stronger.
His eyes drifted toward the hallway, and without any further words, they stood and went towards it.
…
The bedroom door opened with a soft creak, and another fresh wave of smell hit them. Icarus immediately passed a cloth for Jon to cover his nose.
Right there, at the corner, was the source of the rotten smell.
It was the old woman he had killed the previous day, or rather, her corpse.
Just like before, after her death she seemed at peace. If not for the dried blood beneath her head, she might have looked like an elderly woman resting after a long day.
Jon swallowed hard.
If someone told him yesterday morning that the world would enter a brink of chaos, he wouldn't have believed it. If someone told him that he would kill, he might have erupted into anger, and he might have engaged in a physical fight with the person.
And all of that had happened in less than twenty-four hours since the world entered chaos.
"I'm sorry." He whispered the words before crouching beside the body. Icarus silently moved to the other side and took the legs.
Jon nodded, and together, they lifted.
Immediately, both realized how heavy a human body truly was.
It had been only slightly heavy the previous day. Now it felt impossibly dense.
Her head hung loosely over Jon's arm, swaying gently every time they took another step. Neither looked at her lifeless face and avoided her arms.
After minutes of struggle, they arrived before the front entrance. Together, they pushed aside the barricade they had built the previous evening.
The sofa scraped across the floor, and the cabinets followed.
Finally...
Jon unlocked the door, and the cool and fresh morning air drifted into the house.
For a moment, Jon took it all in. The surrounding was peaceful, almost too peaceful.
"Let's go."
They carried the professor past the front yard and into the neighborhood.
It looked untouched. Morning sunlight illuminated trimmed hedges of the flower beds, neatly painted fences, and laundry still hung from clotheslines, gently swaying in the breeze.
Everything looked exactly as it had yesterday, as if the chaos that unfolded never reached this place. However, they knew better than to accept it as it looked.
"Have you noticed anything strange?" Icarus asked, looking around while his strange gold eyes slightly pulsated.
"Yeah," Jon replied, looking around in the opposite direction, "There is no sign of anyone being here, no blood stains, not even birds, just nothing."
Jon's eyes narrowed. 'Which is strange considering the screams we heard throughout yesterday sounded nearby.'
The silence felt wrong.
"We need to hurry."
They held the body tighter and increased their pace until they reached the front gate. Until they arrived, they saw no one, found nothing, and heard nothing.
As terrifying as that seemed, it also acted as a sort of safety for them. It meant that there was no danger in their proximity.
They laid the old woman beside the front gate of the staff quarters entrance.
Jon stared at her corpse for what was the final time.
"...I'm sorry."
The words escaped him once more.
Grrr…
A low, wet growl responded, freezing both young men.
Across the street, something moved behind an abandoned sedan. They recognized it instantly. It was the same sedan they saw the previous day that the man tried to hijack and speed off before two infected creatures attacked him.
A woman slowly stepped into view, or what had once been a woman. Her hair hung in tangled clumps around her face. Dried blood covered her neck, and her cloudy white eyes wandered.
Then they stopped, locked onto Jon.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
The infected woman tilted her head, her nostrils flared. Then she began walking toward them, taking on slow step after another.
With each step, her growl deepened, and Jon felt his heartbeat quicken.
'She can't see us, right?'
"Inside," Icarus whispered.
Then, as if she heard him, the woman suddenly accelerated unnaturally. Her awkward walk became an uneven sprint.
At the same moment—
Another growl answered from farther down the road, skipping the recognition stage and began sprinting immediately.
Then another growl echoed.
Jon and Icarus' eyes widened at the third growl.
This aged figure had stumbled out from between two houses within the staff quarters, from the same surroundings they had thought to be safe and silent.
His mouth hung unnaturally open, his tongue hung weirdly, and his bloody teeth gleamed crimson.
Together, the three converged, and their destination was the same.
Jon and Icarus.